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NaNo '13: Day 15

For whatever reason, Week Two of NaNoWriMo is often uphill. Whether it's because every movie you ever wanted to see is released in November or because after writing so much stuff, you get that sinking feeling that it's really not very good, Week Two is not the best week of NaNo.

I hit a little bit of that lovely Week Two writing A.D.D. over the second weekend because I was working and then again on Day 12, also due to work and finding shiny things to distract myself with. I'm a compulsive word count updater and it irks me when I update and see that the paragraph I just wrote was only 400 words long and not, like, a thousand.

I'm still excited about the story. I'm at a good part of it, actually (they're finally going out together!) Then somebody told me that I'm ahead by a lot, so "calm down and enjoy the process."

Ugh. Just because I'm ahead doesn't mean I'm not feeling Week Two. And it doesn't mean that I'm NOT enjoying the process. The good thing is, if I have Colin and Emma in the same scene, their conversations go on for ages.

Also, I had an epiphany earlier. I thought Emma was turning into me, a recurring problem that I have with modern day female characters. But actually, though we share some of the same traits, views and problems, I am not Emma and she is not me. We only have similarities because a) she came out of my brain and b) we're both modern day young women.

Jay-Z.
"Empire State of Mind." It never gets old. Colin walks the considerable
distance toward Astoria Park, warming up. It's about ten blocks from his
apartment, due east, but he likes the view and at this time of day, it's never
crowded.

From
his very first New York job, an off-Broadway musical at the New York Musical
Theatre Festival, Colin has lived in Astoria. He's moved apartments a couple of
times, but always within the same part of northwestern Queens. It's the most
convenient, transit-wise, for Manhattan.

He
enters the park, stretches, and then starts at a light jog. Astoria Park lays
on the water, the East River. Above him, not too far away, is the span of the
Triborough Bridge, which connects Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. It was a
suspension bridge. They changed the name of the bridge in the past few years,
but in typical New York City fashion, the new name separated the natives and
long-timers from the newbies. And so it remained, in Colin's mind, the
Triborough.

He jogs further into the park, closer to
the water. Manhattan is perfectly visible from the park, the buildings gleaming
under the cold March sun. Wards Island, in between Queens and Manhattan, is a
mass of leafless trees and the cement block of a psychiatric hospital.

Colin
stops, breathing heavily. He turns the iPod back to "Empire State of
Mind." He sings quietly under his breath with Alicia Keys. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of…

His
dreams had come true in New York. And walking along the East River, seeing the
city in front of him, Colin feels like the luckiest bastard in the world.

***

It's
about two in the afternoon when Emma spies Colin walk across the café floor to
settle at her counter. Rosita is off today. Andrea works the floor. Augustus
sits at his accustomed table.One
of the waitresses from the Thai place on the same block sits and eats a salad
for her lunch. Lunch time was busy today. Emma is counting the cash in the tip
jar when she hears someone sit on a stool. She looks over her shoulder and sees
Colin.

"Do
you have rehearsal today?" She asks after handing over a menu.

"Nope,"
he smiles. "We opened on Sunday. We're just going to have a chat about
opening night and reviews, but I'm starving.
I ran like four miles this morning."

Of
course he ran four miles. Of course he did. He's obviously physically fit. Emma's
philosophy is diametrically opposed to running anywhere for four miles. She
ain't running unless someone's chasing her. Or unless she feels an extreme urge
to get out of a situation.

"Do
you want tea while you're deciding?" Emma asks.

"Yes,
please," he says, eyes scanning the menu. "Thank you, Emma."

When
she settles the tea cup down on the counter, Colin hands her the menu and
orders. "Yeah, it's going to have to be a burger. With Italian seasoning
fries."

She
smiles, puts in the order, and grabs a cloth to start wiping down the back
counter.

"Hey,
how long have you worked here?" Colin asks.

"About
two years," Emma replies. Why is he asking? "So, how was opening
night?""Yeah,
it went really well. Opening nights are crazy. The party was fun," Colin
says. "Best part is no rehearsal the next day. The major papers release
their reviews a midnight after opening night. Today, we're going to hear about
the other reviews and see what kind of press oppportunities might come
up."

Henry
rings the bell. Emma grabs the plate and places it down on the counter. She
looks out at the café. Andrea is seating a couple.

"Do
you read the reviews?"

"Nah,"
Colin says. "I read the ones that come out on opening night. Hard to avoid
those. The critics come in during the last couple of previews and sit on their
reviews until midnight after opening."

"That
makes sense," Emma replies. It would be hard to think, write and then
publish a full review of a musical in a couple of hours, she thinks. She busies
herself with wiping down the back counter while Colin consumes his food. A to-go
order occupies her further, but when that customer has been served and leaves,
Emma checks on Colin.

"Everything
alright?"He
nods. Half of the burger is gone. He picks up a couple of fries.

"Need
anything else?"

"Maybe
another tea."

"Sure."
She gets the hot water ready and the appropriate tea bag, sliding them over to
him.

"Are
you from New York originally?" Colin asks.

Emma
blinks, then nods. She's been told by others that she doesn't exude New Yorker,
whatever that means. Maybe they mean that she's quieter than a normal New
Yorker?

"Born
in Manhattan, raised in Queens," Emma elaborates.

"Oh.
I live in Queens," Colin replies. He takes a sip of tea. "Do you
still live there?"

"Not
with my parents anymore, but yeah," Emma answers. "Ailey and I live
in Jackson Heights." Neither talk for a few seconds. He drinks, but his
eyes stay on her. Emma glances downward for a second. What now? Let the
conversation hang? Go pretend to do some work?

Why is she so horrid at reading social cues? Particularly male social cues. Maybe
in the past, girls like her became nuns because they were too socially awkward
to become wives. Emma wanted to be a nun, when she was about four years old. Um.
What was a logical question after…

"Where
in Queens do you live?" Emma spits out.

He
swallows. "Astoria." She nods. She figured. It wasn't referred to as
"Actoria" among the theater community for nothing. For easy access to
the city, Astoria and Long Island City were the closest, right on the water,
though Jackson Heights wasn't that far of a commute either, compared to other
areas of Queens.

"And
where are you from, originally?" Emma asks. He doesn't strike her as a
typical New Yorker either, if there ever could be such a thing in this city.

"Upstate,"
Colin says, working on his fries again. He talks around his food, chewing on one
side of his mouth. "Close upstate. I'm not talking, like, Rochester."

Andrea
comes around to the counter for some menus, which Emma hands her.

"I
went running in Astoria Park this morning," Colin goes on, after he's
swallowed. "I can't wait for the pool to open when the weather gets
warmer. It's awesome."

Emma
can't help but smile. She didn't have expectations, exactly, of what Colin
Shelton, actor, Broadway star, would be like. But she hadn't expected this—this
chatty, polite, pleasant guy who seemed enthusiastic about different things.

Comments

I know what you mean. I just feel like curling on the couch and having a TV marathon of whatever show I'm most behind on. I'm still enjoying myself and making progress, I just don't feel that crazy writer energy this week.

Cute sample. What's amazing is that you're only 1/2 way through NaNo yet you've almost accomplished the word count. That's crazy! I don't know if you're almost done with the story but at least you will complete your NaNo word count. But then hopefully your other hurdle of a finished story will be within November too.

Yup! 50,000 maybe by Sunday? We'll see! I think I need another 10,000 to 20,000 words to finish the story properly though. But I think I'll finish it within November. They're being very cute right now, which means I need to make things uncomfortable for them.

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